After nearly half a decade, Mark Wahlberg may finally get his chance to play Steve Austin. According to Variety, Bumblebee director Travis Knight has signed on to direct The Six Billion Dollar Man.
In 1973, Lee Majors headlined the The Six Million Dollar Man TV series as Colonel Steve Austin. After a distinguished career as an astronaut, Austin was critically wounded in an accident and also beyond conventional medical help. Austin’s life was saved by bionic implants that made him superhuman. In order to pay back the investment made in saving him, Steve worked as a secret agent for the OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence). The series had a five season run on ABC, and it even had a spinoff series called The Bionic Woman.
RELATED: Mark Wahlberg is The Six Billion Dollar Man
While Dynamite Entertainment is publishing Steve Austin’s new comic book adventures under The Six Million Dollar Man, the new film will apparently adjust the title for inflation. A previous comic book reboot re-titled the series The Bionic Man.
Wahlberg joined the current cinematic reboot back in 2014. Despite Wahlberg’s his involvement, the project has been bogged down with delays and creative turnover. The collapse of The Weinstein Company also played a major role in holding the project back. After Warner Bros. became the new the rights holder, and the studio hired Bill DuBuque to write a new script. Sue Kroll, Bill Gerber, and Steve Levinson are producing the film.
The Six Billion Dollar Man doesn’t current have a release date. However, the addition of Knight suggests that the project may finally begin production soon.
Are you excited to see Travis Knight’s take on The Six Billion Dollar Man? Which actors do you want to see in the film alongside Wahlberg? Let us know in the comment section below!
